


Forever

by Lire_Casander



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 06:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3639417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lire_Casander/pseuds/Lire_Casander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The pain is so strong, much stronger than anything she's ever felt, and she wonders if it will ever end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

> My take on that little scene by the end of the last film. It's dark, and it's sad, and you should take that seriously. I never warn about darkness when it's not necessary, and if any of you have ever read my works, you'd know by now.
> 
> Unbeta'ed. English is not my first language, so bear with me.

Life has a way of developing that is difficult to understand, even to the Elders. Tauriel isn't trying to comprehend what's possibly the most incomprehensible event in her short Elvish life. She doesn't even want to.

She wants to be able to cope with the fact that her world has been torn apart in a matter of seconds, and now she's left alone with a cold runestone and a lifeless body to hold onto, until the end of time. Because she is immortal, and immortality has also its disadvantages. 

The pain is so strong, much stronger than anything she's ever felt, and she wonders if it will ever end.

"I don't know," answers a voice at her back, and it's then when she realizes that she's spoken out loud, and that she's been so caught up in her pain that she hasn't even noticed a Dwarf walking up to them. 

Maybe it's not a bad thing that she's been ripped off her title as Captain of Thranduil's Guard, that she's been banished from Mirkwood, that not even Legolas is by her side.

"We will bury them," the Dwarf continues. Tauriel looks up and sees the old miner with the white beard - Balin. 

"Them?" she asks in a whisper. Her voice quivers even if it's not above a mere thread of sound. 

"Kíli isn't the only one who's fallen today," Balin says. "His brother and his uncle, they've met their ancestors as well."

Tauriel wants to scream. Kíli hasn't gone merrily to meet his fate, she wants to cry. Kíli has faced an Orc for her, has fought and died _for her_ , and now he's waiting at Mahal's doors to enter the Halls of forever. "You will bury him in stone," she says instead.

"Yes," Balin confirms, head bowed slightly. "He would have wanted you to remember him with a smile and not with tears," he adds as an afterthought, but Tauriel simply chooses to ignore him. Instead, she embraced Kíli tighter and begins rocking back and forth, back and forth, until the world starts to fade away and all that remains is the grief.

The strife will accompany her for the rest of her eternal life, and she will have to live with it or die of it.

When Thranduil shows up, long after Balin has left out of words to offer her, when her former King speaks with so much feeling in his voice than she has ever heard in him, Tauriel has already made up her mind. 

Her decision is taken. Her resolve does not quiver.

Yet her voice trembles when she asks for the only thing that Thranduil, and Thranduil alone, can grant her. Her words echo in the silence of Ravenhill, on top of the frozen mountain that is now dyed crimson, as Thranduil's sword is drawn, as the Elven King helps her in her only request after over six hundred years.

"I want to be with him forever."

Afterwards, the runestone of broken promises shines red under the pure light of the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.


End file.
